Wellness Program to Shoot up Employee Performance

What can be a better way than to move ahead with your professional life in a healthier way?

Naah, we are not talking about weight-loss or dieting, we are concerned about employees’ wellness. Busy work days have strained employees to skip meals and switch to quick bites like crunching unhealthy snacks. Poor intake not only affects the well-being, it also has negative impact on employee’s productivity.

However, employee wellness program is not just limited to eating habits, it extends to fitness plan, behavioral factors, acknowledgment and engagement games and strategies that keep employees content.

We have encountered that many companies assume employee wellness program can turn out to a be a costly-affair but in reality you earn more benefits by spending less. Small gestures like offering fresh fruits, walking meeting, conducting yoga sessions will either cost you peanuts or zilch. In fact, you also win employees’ loyalty, as you are showing interest in their well-being.

It’s passe when cash was the ultimate reward for employees, at present and also from long-term perspective, wellness initiative is a surefire winner to engage employees and boost productivity.

From bags of ideas, we have handpicked few wellness approach that will nurture the top talent and boost employee performance :-

1. Fitbit Challenge to Monitor Employee’s Fitness:

Let’s get going with the most in-thing – Fitbit. This innovative technology gizmo encourage employees to shed weight, stay physically active and also amplifies their confidence level. Companies can arrange Fitbit challenges with rewards attached. The software is easy-to-use and manage, you just need to find the right fit for your business.

Fitbit can be pretty penny but certainly a good wellness investment to make as apart from health benefits, Fitbit can have great impact on business too. It increases employee engagement and boosts their productivity. Fitbit devices are user-friendly and definitely worth trying.

2. Integrate wellness activities:

Honestly speaking, there is no such thing as ‘no time for exercise’, even 10 to 15 minutes a day can lead you to healthy living. Most of the employees growl that tight work schedule is affecting their health however you act in response by integrating some wellness activities within workspace itself.

• Daily dose of yoga or even weekly thrice can work wonders. Yoga will pump up your mind, body and soul. The peacefulness and relief which employees would experience from yoga will certainly energize them and refine their performance.
• Unexciting boardroom meetings can be turned into zestful walk meetings. Conducting walk meetings outdoor with nature view is really refreshing and also evoke creative thoughts that make the meetings more rewarding.
• Grabbing lunch with fellow employees will encourage them more to work in teams as their mutual bonding would increase. But you must be wondering how does this relate with employee wellness? Instead of having midday meal within the office premises, you can walk down to nearest restaurant (remember we said by walk) At least twice or thrice a week. This is small but positive step to healthy living. PAY ATTENTION! Lunch at restaurant doesn’t mean feasting. It’s our humble request that you only look out for nourishing food or else the walk will go in vain.
• No elevator usage! Taking stairs is the most effective way to burn calories, you can motivate the employees to use staircase instead of elevator. This doesn’t even seem like exercise and silently helps you to stay fit.
• Organizing fun games is a good move for rejuvenation. You can ask employees to participate in sporty games like hula hoop, running race, trampoline, etc.

3. Low quality snacks and junk food is strictly prohibited:

Sitting at one place for elongated hours and churning unhealthy food is certainly one of the crucial reasons that is affecting the good health of employees. Gorging on food that has low or no nutritional value will harm wellness of your employees and also affect their productivity. As an efficient business, it is your responsibility to take care of eating habits of your employees when they are within your premises. Instead of offering poor snacks, you can switch to healthier snack options that are high in nutritional value and good filling food too. Food has a powerful impact of productivity of employees. You can offer low fat menu that includes whole grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables. Nourishment like flavored yoghurt, almond milk, veg salads, sprout salads, bean salads,vegetable soup, hummus, nut butters, muffins can be great snacks to be served at workplace that will improve the health as well the productivity.

We have more to add on our list, stay tuned….

FAQs

Q1. What’s a wellness program actually look like when you’re doing it?

Honestly, ignore the fancy brochures for a bit. Mostly it’s just small stuff. Like getting better snacks for the break room or maybe walking while you talk instead of sitting in another boring meeting. Or even just a dumb little step challenge with everyone. It doesn’t need to be some big, formal thing to actually work.

Q2. Will wellness initiatives actually make my team more productive?

Honestly, yes. Think about it from a basic human angle. Someone who ate well, moved a little, and does not feel completely wrung out by noon is going to do better work than someone running on coffee and stress. It is not rocket science, it is just common sense backed by a lot of real workplace experience.

Q3. We are a small company with almost no budget. Is any of this still possible?

Absolutely, and do not let anyone convince you otherwise. Walk meetings cost nothing. Stairs cost nothing. Bringing in a box of bananas on a Monday morning costs almost nothing. The point is not how much you spend, it is whether your team feels like someone is actually thinking about them

Q4. What kind of snacks should we actually be stocking at the office?

Anything that does not send people into a sugar spiral an hour later. Fresh fruit, hummus, sprout salads, yogurt, nut butters, whole grain muffins, a decent vegetable soup on cold days. Real food that keeps people going rather than junk that gives a quick hit and then leaves everyone feeling flat.

Q5. How do Fitbit challenges actually play out in a real office environment?

They start off with a bit of curiosity and quickly turn into something the team actually looks forward to. People check in on each other, a little trash talk happens, and suddenly everyone is taking the long way to the coffee machine. Tie a small reward to it and you have got something that genuinely builds momentum.

Q6. How do we add wellness to a workday that already feels like too much?

Stop thinking of it as adding and start thinking of it as swapping. The meeting that could have been a walk. The lift you could skip. The ten minutes at lunch you could spend stretching instead of staring at your phone. None of this takes more time, it just takes a bit of a mindset shift about how existing time gets used.

Q7. Do wellness efforts genuinely affect whether people stay at a company?

They really do and this gets underestimated constantly. A bonus is nice but people forget it. What they remember is whether their workplace made them feel like a human being or just a resource. Companies that get this right do not have to worry nearly as much about keeping their best people.

Q8. Why does nobody talk about workplace food as a productivity tool?

Because it sounds too simple and people tend to distrust simple answers. But ask anyone who has swapped their usual office vending machine habit for something actually nutritious and they will tell you the difference in how they feel by three in the afternoon is very real. It is one of the easiest wins on the table and most companies just walk right past it.